God hears and answers our prayers, but the answers may not always be what we expected.
There are three main types of answers that God gives for our prayers:
· Yes
· No
· Wait
Here, we will be focusing on unanswered prayer (When God answers ‘No’)
The New Testament has two prominent people who received an answer ‘No’ from God- Jesus and Paul
Paul:
Paul was one of the greatest defender of the Christian faith but he too dealt with unanswered prayers. Paul prayed three times to God regarding ‘a thorn in the flesh’. But God did not answer that request. God instead said ‘My grace is sufficient for you’.
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me” (2 Corinthians 12:8).
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12: 9).
God’s plan for Paul was to reach out to the Gentiles and be a representation of God’s power. Through Paul’s suffering, people were able to see that Christ’s power was working through him. Paul understood that God’s grace and peace is all that he needed and in spite of his weakness, he was made strong. This also taught him to completely rely on God and his messages were more powerful. God’s ways are not always our ways, but even when we don’t understand at present, His ways are the best.
Jesus
Jesus too dealt with unanswered prayer. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed earnestly asking God if it was possible to remove the cup of suffering from Him.(regarding crucifixion)
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Luke 22:39)
But God answered No for this prayer. This was because God had a greater plan. Through Jesus’s crucifixion, God was able to provide salvation to all mankind. If God had answered this prayer, there will be no salvation for us and we will all spend eternity in hell for our sins.
Philip Yancey in his book Prayer: Does it make any difference? puts it this way:
The “unanswered prayer” for Jesus occurred in the Garden of Gethsemane when, as Luther put it, “God struggled with God.” While Jesus lay prostrate on the ground, sweat falling from him like drops of blood, his prayers took on an uncharacteristic tone of pleading. He “offered up prayer and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death,” the Letter to the Hebrews says, but of course Jesus knew he would not be saved from death.
When Jesus prayed to the one who could save him from death, he did not get that salvation; he got instead the salvation of the world.
Hence, we can see that when God answers No for our prayers, it’s mainly because God has a better plan though we may not immediately be able to see it and this is also a way of getting us to totally depend on Him and focus on Him more.